See It - Say It Bible Storybook

The See It - Say It Bible Storybook by Anne Adams is a rebus picture book for young children. In place of some words, the text uses small pictures children should readily understand, enabling them to "read" along with an adult.

Each page of the See It - Say It Bible Storybook has a gray banner running along the top, showing the rebus pictures used on that page labeled with the appropriate word. For example, a picture of two green fish is labeled "fish." Beneath this gray area is an approximately half page illustration, much like you'd find in any picture book. This is followed by around a half page of large print text, interspersed with some rebus pictures.

To use the book, an adult reads the text, either running her finger along the text so the child knows when a rebus picture appears or pointing to the correct rebus picture at the right moment. The child then "reads" the rebus picture out loud. For example:

Parent: "He reached deep into the sea and landed it with -"
Child, looking at small picture of a fish: "Fish!"

The See It - Say It Bible Storybook includes all the usual stories found in Bible storybooks, including the story of creation, Noah, Moses, David and Goliath, Daniel in the lion's den, Jesus' birth, John the Baptist, and many of Jesus' miracles - and ends rather abruptly with the story of Paul being shipwrecked.

What I Like: The idea behind this book is terrific. Rebus books are wildly popular among toddlers and preschoolers. Rick Incrocci's illustrations are also perfect for this age group: cute, bright, and colorful.
What I Dislike: Many of the rebus pictures just aren't that obvious. I found myself explaining to my bright four year old what a good share of the rebus pictures were supposed to be. This ruins the whole concept of a rebus book. For example, the illustrator uses faces to take the place of some people's names, the rebus picture of a puddle doesn't look much different from the one for a lake, the rebus picture of a blister just looks like a finger with a bump, the picture for "supper" could easily be misinterpreted as just "food," and so on.
Too, because we were focusing so much on figuring out the rebus pictures, it was too hard to concentrate on the really important thing at hand - the Bible stories.
Overall Rating: Ho-hum.
Age Appeal: 4 - 8.
Publishing Info: Faith Kidz, 2006; ISBN: 978-0781444033; hardback, $12.99.
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